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Exploring the Qwiki

Qwiki is one of the newest entries into the search engine arena. Currently it’s in it’s alpha stage, and while the way it delivers information is a novel idea, I have doubts on it’s future.

Creators, Doug Imbruce and Lois Monier have designed Qwiki to be used as an app that runs on the web and mobile devices. They attempt to present data in an interesting and visual way, that resembles a story telling format. And it’s pretty cool if you search your hometown or other simple topics. Qwiki responds by showing you pictures while reading a summary of the topic you requested. In that regard it almost reminds me of the Dr. Know character in the movie A.I. . But this is about where the cool points end. When I searched for Qwiki using Qwiki, I was unable to get any information about the tool itself. This also proved true when I tried any math functions, in this case I tried 2+4= , but Qwiki was unable to provide an answer. Now I realize that the later is not part of it’s stated purpose, but in my opinion, this tool suffers from the lack of flexibility. It’s again important to keep in mind that this is still an alpha, and many planned features may simply be unfinished. If that is true then I could see this being a very neat tool. But again, I don’t see it competing in the same vein as any major search engines because of the way it delivers information. The story telling approach is useful for getting the general surface information about a topic. But when you need granular, detailed, and even repetitive information, Qwiki is just not going to get you there.